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Ararat fire, July 2018 Armenia

Out · last detection 6 Jul 2018, 22:42 UTC

The fire started on 4 July 2018 in Ararat, Armenia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 469 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

Number 6 in Armenia in 2018, of 21.

The power measured by the satellite is low (7.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
469ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
4 Jul 2018 – 6 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
0
municipalities
Started on
4 Jul
2018
Heat detections
11
in a single hotspot: 7 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
30MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jul6 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

456

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high
50km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
4 Jul 33.5 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jul 33.2 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Jul 31.9 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Jul after 29.3 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Jul after 28.4 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jul after 31.0 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jul after 33.0 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Jul after 34.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Jul after 35.9 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jul after 33.3 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Jul after 31.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 39
15 Jul after 28.5 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
16 Jul after 25.2 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 27 Jun 2018
After · 13 Jul 2018

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 11Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Armenia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ararat fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 July 2018 and 6 July 2018: 3 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 469 hectares (4.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Armenia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911 · 112

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911 · 112.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.